On November 28, 2024, the European Commission adopted five implementing regulations that spell out how a European Digital Identity Wallet must work. Member states have until the end of 2026 to put one in their citizens’ hands.
The wallet rests on Regulation (EU) 2024/1183, which amends the older Regulation (EU) No 910/2014. That law was published in the Official Journal on April 30, 2024 and entered into force on May 20, 2024. The Commission’s November package supplies the technical detail the law left open.
What the five regulations cover
Four of them set uniform standards for how the wallets function. They deal with data formats that work across borders, reliability and security, and storage on the user’s own device. A privacy dashboard is built in, so people can see what they have shared and with whom. The Commission describes the design as having “zero tracking or profiling.”
The fifth regulation covers certification. It sets the procedures a wallet must pass before it can be released, with security and data protection as the test. Per the reference site tracking the rules, all five were published in the Official Journal on December 4, 2024.
Obligations for governments
Each member state must provide a wallet to all citizens, residents and businesses, build a national certification scheme, and name supervisory bodies to oversee it. Wallets have to work both online and offline anywhere in the EU. The deadline falls 24 months after the implementing acts were adopted, which lands around the end of 2026.
What users could do with it
The Commission lists several everyday uses: opening a bank account, proving age, renewing a prescription, renting a vehicle, and showing a flight ticket. Users keep control over which data they pass on.
The Commission called the package “a major step towards Member States building their own wallets and releasing them by the end of 2026.” The implementing regulations took effect 20 days after publication.
Sources
- Commission adopts technical standards for cross-border European Digital Identity Wallets (European Commission)
- EU Commission adopts standards for eID Wallets (The Paypers)
- eIDAS 2.0 timeline (European Digital Identity Regulation reference site)
